May 13, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



733 



poor, but the. results as a whole are not 

 nearly what they should be. 



Now, in studying the general situation 

 and especially in analyzing the means used 

 in teaching, aside from the influence of the 

 personality of the teacher, I can not help 

 concluding that the great defect lies largely 

 in the misuse of the four great tools of in- 

 struction, fine tools in their proper place 

 and used at the proper time, but as used 

 in our high schools under the conditions 

 existing in Wisconsin, at least, turned to 

 what may be fitly called instruments of 

 confusion. These instruments ai'e: 



1. Measurement.— T^ndiMe. emphasis is 

 placed upon accurate measurement, es- 

 pecially with delicate and complicated ap- 

 paratus. I suppose that in the case de- 

 scribed above the pupil had been put 

 through the usual course. There was first 

 some brief inti-oductory work, mainly by 

 the teacher, with little attempt to make use 

 of what the student already knew of the 

 subject. Instead of some roughly approxi- 

 mate measurements using a familiar 

 spring balance, a large block of some sub- 

 stance and a tank of water, she was prob- 

 ably given a carefully adjusted balance, a 

 small bit of some material, and required to 

 make from ten to twenty weighings, to 

 average the results, and to write the whole 

 according to a prescribed form in a note- 

 book. She was fortunate if the time of the 

 instruction and the time of the laboratory 

 work were not some days or even weeks 

 apart. By the time all this was done the 

 poor little bit of physics involved was 

 pretty effectually lost in the maze of ma- 

 nipulations and averages. It may have 

 been excellent manual-training work, but 

 it should have been done in that depart- 

 ment. 



Laboratory work is necessary, more nec- 

 essary in these days of specialization than 

 ever before, not as a specialist's instru- 



ment in the high school, but as a means of 

 giving clearer conceptions of the topics 

 studied, including supplying information 

 which in earlier days would have come to 

 the pupil as a part of his own experience. 

 Much of physics which a generation or 

 two ago was within the observation of the 

 pupil in its entirety is now largely ob- 

 scured. For instance, in the case of the 

 water supply. Then the boy saw the well 

 dug, the pump and piping installed, and 

 the water obtained by the application of 

 force ; now he sees only the faucet. Then, 

 the periodical candle making from tallow 

 produced on the farm was a somewhat ex- 

 citing event, upon the success or failure 

 of which meant a good or poor supply of 

 light for the winter evenings; now, a but- 

 ton is pushed and the light comes without 

 further question. The chain back to the 

 source must be supplied by the laboratory 

 work, a large part of which still should 

 be outside of school. 



2. The Mathematical Work.— The aver- 

 age exercise in the texts most in use when 

 analyzed reveals a very small amount of 

 physics in proportion to the mathematics 

 involved. It woixld make excellent ma- 

 terial for a parallel advanced class in 

 mathematics, either algebra or geometry, 

 or a combination of the two. I am hoping 

 to see the experiment tried of having such 

 classes conducted, if possible, by the teach- 

 ers of physics, but such work should not 

 take the time of or be called physics. 



Physics is a quantitative as well as a 

 qualitative study, and we must use some 

 mathematics; but in my experience, both 

 as a teacher and as an inspector, I have 

 found that the mathematics must be very 

 simple, and that round numbers, or very 

 simple fractions, must be generally used 

 if the pupil's mind is to be kept clear for 

 the physical principle. The experiment 

 illustrating Boyle's law will be much 



